ACG Calgary Deal Maker Series | Alberta’s Evolving Economy – Diving into Agriculture, Hydrogen and Real Estate

Wilson is a Builder.

Working closely with the other members of the team, Wilson drives the strategic direction of the firm and works closely with our investors, the management teams with which we work and other members of the ecosystem. Building a business is a bit like solving a series of riddles and Wilson loves getting together with a team to crack the latest mind bender and help them take their business to new heights.

Wilson has an extensive background in mergers & acquisitions and capital markets, formerly as a partner with one of Canada’s premiere national law firms (don’t hold that against him, he’s actually a nice guy). Before founding Tall Grass with Chris Edwards, Wilson co-founded, built and exited a number of businesses, including in agtech and fintech. That journey saw Wilson raise multiple rounds of investment, buy and sell companies and technologies and work with a number of accelerators, incubators and mentors.  Through this journey he identified a gap in the market for investment in pre-Series A tech companies in Canada.  Perhaps more importantly, this capital gap was coupled with a general discontent in founders looking for more than capital but also genuine help with their specific challenges to build better businesses. With that in mind, the foundation for Tall Grass Ventures was formed.

Hailing from “the Lord’s Rectangle” (aka. Saskatchewan), he is the 5th generation of his family in the grain and livestock business. This deep connection to agriculture has fueled Wilson as a passionate advocate for agriculture and its potential to solve many of the problems facing the world today.

Dr. Rudiger Tscherning, an expert in international energy law, the conflict of laws and international commercial law, joined the Faculty of Law in 2016. Most recently, he was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Norway. A PhD graduate of the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in Germany, Professor Tscherning is a past visiting research fellow at the Canadian Institute of Resources Law. Dr. Tscherning has previously served as director of the Center for Energy and Sustainability Law at Qatar University College of Law, where he also was a Lecturer of Law teaching in energy and sustainability law and policy. Before joining academia, he practised as a solicitor in London, England.

Since joining the University of Calgary, Dr. Tscherning has secured research funding from the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research, and the Alberta Law Foundation. He was awarded the Faculty of Law's Stikeman Elliott LLP Fellowship in Corporate Law in 2018 and in 2020. Dr. Tscherning received honorable mention for a University of Calgary Sustainability Teaching Award in the spring of 2020, in recognition of his efforts of embedding sustainability and the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 in his law courses. 

Adam Stewart is Vice President with Savills Calgary and Edmonton offices, where he provides tenant advisory services to companies and organizations across Western Canada.

He specializes in office and industrial tenant representation, consulting services, strategic planning, financial analysis, portfolio solutions, disposition, and investment sales. Adam’s areas of expertise include financial analysis and local market economics. His experience includes leading and supporting client engagements for office, medical and industrial tenants with acute attention to detail and diligence in documentation. He also has extensive experience working with technology, engineering and energy sector clients.

Adam joined Savills and opened its Calgary office in 2019 after nearly four years with Cresa, where he was a senior advisor in the firm’s Alberta office. Prior to joining Cresa, he was vice president, Strategy, at Finance for Good, and previously served as an analyst for Hugessen Consulting.

While with Cresa, Adam was recognized for top performance, earning both Rising Star for Cresa Global and Rookie of the Year for Cresa Alberta. In 2011, he was a founder, and has been an advisory board member, of the World Mining Competition -- Canada's first and only undergraduate mining business strategy competition -- hosted in Saskatoon, SK. Adam is also an active volunteer with the Lionheart Foundation.